Key ring



June 8, 1943. J} MORSE 2,321,504

KEY RING Filed Jan. 29, 1942 INVENTOR ATTORN EY Patented June 8, 1943 KEY RING William J. Morse, Attleboro, Mass, assignor to Morse Andrews (20., a corporation of Massachusetts Application January 29, 1942, Serial No. 428,687

1 Claim.

My present inventionrelates to key rings, and has particular reference to a simple arrangement for a spring lock key ring.

The principal object of the invention is to provide a sturdy spring lock key ring of a very small number of parts.

Another object of the invention is to utilize inexpensive parts which are readily assembled.

With the above and other objects and advantageous features in view, the invention consists of a novel arrangement of parts more fully disclosed in the detailed description following, in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, and more specifically defined in the claim appended thereto.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a view of a key chain assembly, com

prising the novel key ring;

Fig. 2 is a side view of the key ring;

Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 2, showing the key ring open;

Fig. 4 is a section on the line 4-4 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is a rear perspective view of the belt retainer;

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of the key ring wire;

Fig. '7 is a perspective of the key ring head blank; and

Fig. 8 is a perspective detail of the key ring head parts when assembled.

It has been found desirable to provide a strong, sturdy key ring made of only two parts, a split wire frame, and a lock head portion, thus reducing the cost of manufacture and assembly. To this end, I provide a split wire frame which has its upper end secured in a key ring head, the head having a seat for removably receiving the free split end of the frame, the head having the usual key chain and belt retainer attached thereto.

The key ring, see Fig. 1, comprises the split wire frame I I and the key ring head l2 to which the chain I3 is attached, a belt retainer l4 having a rear spring clip 15 being secured to the other end of the chain. As shown in Fig. 6, the wire frame has an upper bar l6, which may be straight, and a lower portion ll of generally U- shape, one arm l8 of the U being free from the corresponding downwardly extending portion I9 of the upper bar.

The key ring head I2 is preferably blanked in the form shown in Fig. 7 to provide a. sleeve body portion 20 which receives the upper end of the wire frame, the body portion being blanked to provide a chain link attaching loop 2|, and having two downwardly extending arcuate sections 22, 23 which have their edges facing inwardly.

To assemble the key ring, the wire frame is placed in the sleeve body portion, which is then struck as indicated at 24 in Fig. 8 to lock the part together. The struck down portion may be used for identification indicia, if desired. In this position the arm l8 rests in the arcuate section 22, which serves as a retainer seat therefor.

When the arm I8 is pressed inwardly, it unseats from its retainer seat and may be moved laterally, as shown in Fig. 3, to permit insertion.

or removal of keys therefrom. It may then be snapped back to reseat in its retainer seat to thus close the key ring.

The novel key ring thus has only two parts, a strong and sturdy wire frame, and a lock head which also has a key chain receiving loop, whereby the cost of manufacture and assembly is greatly reduced.

While I have described a specific embodiment of my invention, it is obvious that changes in the arrangement of the parts, their size, shape, material and ornamentation may be made to suit the design requirements for difierent types of key rings, without departing from the spirit and the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claim.

I claim:

A key ring comprising a key ring head of sleeve shape having downwardly depending arcuate side sections open inwardly, and a wire frame split at one side to provide an otherwise continuous frame having an upper portion and a lower key receiving portion with a movable arm, the upper portion of the frame being locked in the head with the split positioned in one downwardly depending side section, whereby the end of the movable arm is normally seated in said one side section but may be unseated by pressing inwardly to open the frame, said head having a key chain attaching connection.

WILLIAM J. MORSE. 

